ain't

ain't

1. Ain't is one of the most controversial words in current English, arousing passions that one would never have dreamt of from such a seemingly inoffensive word. ‘Do you hear? Don't say “ain't” or “dang” or “son of a buck”…You're not a pair of hicks!’ scolds a mother in a New Yorker short story. In 1942 Eric Partridge could hardly bear to include it (‘I blush to record it’) in Usage and Abusage, and Webster's Third New International Dictionary of 1961 included it solely on grounds of currency, earning widespread condemnation for not castigating it more strongly. Because social disapproval is so strong, no dictionary of current English will admit it to the ranks of standard English. The reasons for this lie in the word's history.

2. Ain't has been an undisputed element in Cockney speech at least since the time of Dickens

• (‘You seems to have a good sister.’ ‘She ain't half bad.’ —Our Mutual Friend, 1865).

It also features widely in the language of comic strips and modern rap music (of US origin). The OED notes that ‘the contraction is also found as a (somewhat outmoded) upper-class colloquialism. It has also been espoused in intellectual circles as an affectation, which tends to confuse the issue

• (I've not the spirit to pack up and go without him. Ain't I a craven —Virginia Woolf, 1938

• Still working the Cape Cod and Florida cycle. And it ain't too bad —Yale Alumni Magazine).

3. The formation of ain't is irregular, which in part accounts for the stigma attached to it. It is an 18c word, attested earlier in the form an't (e.g. in Fielding). Unlike other contractions, such as isn't, aren't, and haven't, ain't is not a reduced form of any logical ancestor. Note, by the way, that aren't also is exceptional in being used in tag questions for am I not as well as are they not, are you not, and so on (I'm coming too, aren't I?). The logical contraction amn't, is not in use, presumably because it would be too awkward to articulate (and might be shortened to an't or ain't?).

4. It is unlikely that ain't will be admitted to standard English in the foreseeable future, if ever. For now, it stands at the door, out on the pavement, not yet part of the language household except as an affectation or in catchphrases, at best handled with tweezers and at worst regarded as the clearest single token of illiteracy.